Nutrition knowledge of caterers and constraints to offering more healthy meals

The study determined whether school and workplace caterers in the South East of England have the necessary knowledge to provide more healthy meals, and the constraints preventing them offering them. Results indicated that most caterers knew about current nutritional guidelines and sources of nutrients, and thus should be able to produce healthy meal choices. Most caterers believed that certain foods could be prepared successfully using alternative ingredients or cooking methods. The main constraints to offering more healthy options were taste, cost and what customers wanted. The main changes that had been made were the use of reduced-fat ingredients and cooking practices aimed at reducing the fat content of dishes.     

Evaluating the Productivity Performance of Agricultural Enterprises in Ireland using a Multiple Output Distance Function Approach

This paper uses a distance function approach to measure and decompose productivity growth of Irish agriculture between 1984 and 2000 for four principal farming systems. The technology used by each system is found to be sufficiently different as to warrant a system‐by‐system approach. The overall rate of productivity growth in Irish agriculture is found to be just over 1% for this period, but there are significant differences between systems. Sheep systems had the highest rate of productivity growth followed by dairy and tillage. Productivity in cattle farms fell during this period although there is evidence that this trend has been reversed in more recent years.     

Cost and Effectiveness Considerations in the Use of Computer-Assisted Instruction in Economics

The authors review the literature in economics and in other fields dealing with the effectiveness and costs of computer-assisted instruction. Economics appears to be lagging behind other disciplines in the application of this technology to its teaching responsibilities. This is somewhat surprising because economists supposedly enjoy some comparative advantages over others in investigations concerning productivity and efficiency.     

Modelling Regime‐Specific Stock Price Volatility*

Single‐state generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) models identify only one mechanism governing the response of volatility to market shocks, and the conditional higher moments are constant, unless modelled explicitly. So they neither capture state‐dependent behaviour of volatility nor explain why the equity index skew persists into long‐dated options. Markov switching (MS) GARCH models specify several volatility states with endogenous conditional skewness and kurtosis; of these the simplest to estimate is normal mixture (NM) GARCH, which has constant state probabilities. We introduce a state‐dependent leverage effect to NM‐GARCH and thereby explain the observed characteristics of equity index returns and implied volatility skews, without resorting to time‐varying volatility risk premia. An empirical study on European equity indices identifies two‐state asymmetric NM‐GARCH as the best fit of the 15 models considered. During stable markets volatility behaviour is broadly similar across all indices, but the crash probability and the behaviour of returns and volatility during a crash depends on the index. The volatility mean‐reversion and leverage effects during crash markets are quite different from those in the stable regime.     

Exploring Continued and Discontinued Use of IT: A Case Study of OptionFinder, a Group Support System

This study explores how perceptions, experience, attitudes, communication behavior and environment affect continued and discontinued use of a group support system (GSS) as an organizational innovation. The case study method was used to investigate the largely unexplored process of GSS adoption and diffusion in terms of human factors, internal organizational context, external organizational environment and GSS management activities. Analysis of data collected in 25 in-depth interviews with informants who had voluntarily adopted GSS for use in one or more meetings they initiated, suggests GSS diffusion is a complex process. The author concluded the most significant determinants of initial adoption was support of a champion, while the presence of an intra-departmental champion and a well-rounded GSS infrastructure strongly influenced continued use. Lack of task-technology fit and perception of GSS as a large group tool strongly influenced discontinued use. The surprising finding that intentions to use GSS were the same for continued and discontinued users, led to the conclusion that some discontinued users are in reality stalled users who should not be classified as rejecters of the technology.These research findings have important implications for devising strategies for the effective introduction and assimilation of GSS and other information system technologies, and point to the need for continued support throughout the different stages of the diffusion process.     

Implicit pricing across residential rental submarkets

This paper examines implicit price differences of rental housing characteristics across various property types to measure whether determinants of rents are valued in the aggregate or separately. The results show that hedonic price functions are not identical across property types, which suggests that ordinary least squares is not the appropriate estimation technique when modeling the implicit prices for an aggregate rental market. Generalized least squares estimation of a random coefficient model removes the restriction of fixed parameters imposed by OLS and allows estimation of implicit prices for rental markets containing multiple property types.     

Linking forward and reverse supply chain investments: The role of business uncertainty

This paper explores managerial efforts in reverse supply chains (RSC), where the focus is on the capture and exploitation of used products and materials. The RSC can potentially reduce negative environmental impacts of extracting virgin raw materials and waste disposal. If so, investment in the reverse supply chain should not be made in isolation, but instead must be integrated with investments selected to improve the forward supply chain. After defining and operationalizing these constructs, a survey of plant managers was used to empirically assess the linkages between supply chain investments, organizational risk propensity (i.e., willingness to take risk) and business uncertainty. Reverse supply chain investment had two primary dimensions: reconditioning (i.e., high-value recovery) and recycling and waste management (i.e., low- or no-value recovery). Ongoing investment in the forward supply chain was significantly related to investment in recycling and waste management, but not to investment in reconditioning. Moreover, risk propensity was found to mediate the relationship between the external business uncertainty and investment in the forward and reverse supply chain.